How do you find the Aurora Borealis? Can you see it near your house?
It depends on many factors. Most of the time, the Aurora is visible only around the polar regions of our planet (and other planets for that matter).
However, when there are fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field, sometimes the Aurora Borealis can be seen further south.
I found this website which shows where the Borealis is visible during different periods of activity. Check it out.
Here’s a gallery of recent photos since the Northern Lights have gone a bit further south, on Flickr. Beautiful photos.
Leave a message…did you see the Borealis near your house? I’d love to hear about it.
Tags: Astronomy, Aurora Borealis
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The most beautiful shows on display in nature are the special feature known as the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis. If you live south of the equator, it’s known as the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights.
The first time I ever saw the Northern Lights, I didn’t know what it was. I never heard it discussed in science class, nor had I ever heard too much about it. I had heard the name Northern Lights before, but wasn’t sure what it would look like or what to expect.
At the time, I was attending school up at Northern Michigan University, in Marquette, Michigan, where you could watch the Borealis dance across the skies over Lake Superior. The sight was quite breathtaking, to say the least, although my first sight of them made me a bit frightened and looking for cover. All I knew was that it was the mid 1980s, the cold war was on, and we were near a prime target military base. To me, it looked like a nuclear explosion. Sounds a little foolish now….I was young.
Thankfully my eccentric astronomy professor was nearby and explained to me what it was. He took the next day of class to explain the Borealis, since those of us who live more southernly had never seen it before. I still stand in awe of the borealis.
I could only see a small flash of the Northern Lights near the northern horizon for the last couple of days, but that’s more than we normally see this far south. Still, it’s so beautiful, I’m in awe.
Tags: Astronomy, Aurora Borealis
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Source: Hubblesite.org You won’t be able to see Saturn looking this cool from a home telescope. Trust me.After my post on Nature Study Supplies, Missy asked this question, and I think it’s a good one:
Can you post something or maybe even write more here in the comments about why you don’t like telescopes? A telescope was on our “wish list” and you have made me wonder if we should just not get it. Thanks.
When we only had two children, hubby and I both bought each other a telescope for Christmas. Not deliberately of course, but because we both think alike on these things. He saw a telescope on sale for a great price at Natural Wonders, and so did I, so we each secretly conspired with our Christmas money to buy them, and obviously one of them went back.
We soon found out something, living in the city at the time: City lights interfere with the telescope in a big, big way. You couldn’t really see much of anything because of the lights all around our neighborhood. We also had one little old lady (every neighborhood has one) call the cops on us for having a telescope “spying” on people. Um, yeah. In…the…sky….
So, naturally we were disappointed at the time, but also excited when we moved up to a more rural area. Still, the lights were a little bit of a problem, but we were able to position the telescope behind our barn so that, although our view of the Southern sky was hindered slightly, we still were able to see quite a bit.
Except…there were a few other issues no one warned us about:
- If you even so much as breathe too heavily on your telescope while you are trying to look closely at an object in the sky, you may inadvertently and easily knock it out of your view with the slightest bump. As you might imagine, this makes it an exercise in extreme frustration for those of us with little kids.
- Objects in the sky move. Okay, we knew this already, but what I didn’t know was that although I can’t see it with the naked eye, after spending all that time lining up objects in the telescope, the object didn’t stay in our line of view with the telescope for too long.
- Focusing the telescope, depending on the telescope you have, takes great care and patience. You aren’t just going to say, “Okay, kids, lets go out and look at Jupiter!”, and then have it in your view within five minutes. It could take up to a half and hour or maybe even longer.
- What you see through the viewfinder of your telescope will look like photo bokeh at times or blurry lights…not like the photos you see on the Discovery channel or the Hubble Website. You’re using an amateur telescope, not Hubble.
Tags: Astronomy, nature study supplies
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“A Giant Hubble Mosaic of the Crab Nebula”Source: Hubblesite.org;
One of my favorite resource sites for science is the HubbleSite.org, which is the offical site of the Hubble Space Telescope. The photos, like the one above, are simply breathtaking, and leaves me reaffirming that the heavens really do declare the glory of God! What artistry!
Some of these photos which Hubble took could be great ideas for watercolor paintings or drawings.
Well, Hubble is now 20 years ald, so happy birthday to Hubble.
On the site this month, you can find some interesting resources, including a video about things that scientists have learned from Hubble and why it was important to have a telescope in space vs. earthbound, and a pdf file about the most important discoveries made by Hubble (both are on this page). Though I didn’t agree with some of their conclusions (the idea that the universe is billions of years old is based on the idea that the speed of light is constant and not relative as Einstein theorized, and unless we saw something come into existence, we can’t say “for sure” how old anything is), the kids and I found it very fascinating.
Something else we enjoy over at Hubble is their monthly feature “Tonight’s Sky” (now on the Amazing Space site) which will have you looking at the sky with more understanding, and learning different constellations and astronomical features. Do check it out! This month’s video also has a section on the summer solstice which your kids may enjoy.
Tags: Astronomy, Space
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